Stoke City hope to have their new manager signed and sealed by the weekend - but he is unlikely to take charge of Saturday’s game at Brentford.

The club’s owners have narrowed down the field and hope to have Gary Rowett’s replacement ready to take the reins by the start of next week.

The betting odds have shifted markedly in the hours since Rowett’s sacking as the usual suspects like David Moyes, Sam Allardyce and and Martin O’Neill, together with left-field candidates like Luton Town’s Nathan Jones, have all attracted serious wagers.

The Coates family is keen to appoint sooner rather than later to avoid the vacuum they encountered this time last year between the sacking of Mark Hughes and the appointment of Paul Lambert.

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Stoke City's hunt for a new manager

The club is still working on possible transfer targets to have ready should the new manager fancy them before the January window closes, while the new man’s own suggestions will also be considered.

The owners believe they gave Rowett every chance after allowing him to sign eight players, along with the club’s early-summer acquisition of Peter Etebo, but very few of those signings did themselves or their manager justice.

They had hoped to see Stoke narrow the gap on the top six during the festive period, but defeats to Birmingham City and Bristol City, either side of a poor draw at Bolton, leaves them 14th in the table and eight points shy of the play-off places.

Vice-chairman John Coates and fellow director Richard Smith watch Gary Rowett's last game at Shrewsbury on Saturday

It left them no option but to consider a replacement and Rowett’s position had become untenable in their eyes whatever the outcome of last Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie at Shrewsbury.

In the event, they witnessed another hugely anaemic performance and, for a third successive fixture, heard Stoke’s own fans turn on their manager.

They felt Rowett had reached the point of no return because there was no evidence of the instant recovery needed to win back supporters and re-ignite the club’s play-off hopes.

“The Club would like to thank Gary and his staff for their efforts over the past eight months.

“A new managerial appointment will be made as swiftly as possible but in the meantime Rory Delap, Kevin Russell and Andy Quy will take charge of first-team affairs.”

Club favourite Delap left Derby’s Academy last summer to follow Rowett to the Potteries, but hadn’t worked under him until Stoke.

Russell steps up from his role managing Stoke’s under-23s to join the first team, as he did under Lambert in the second half of last season, while Quy, Stoke’s goalkeeping coach for more than a decade, is highly regarded by the owners and is expected to continue working alongside the next manager.